Analysis: Cleared of Rape but Lacking Full Exoneration

In this news story from the New York Times, the reporter used four different sources.

The first of these sources was Kenneth T. Cuccinelli, attorney general for the commonwealth.

The second is a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals of Virginia.

The third is Stephen J. Schulhofer, an expert in criminal justice at New York University law school.

The final source used is Thomas Haynesworth who is the man seeking full exoneration from his prior rape charges.

In my eyes, the reporter did a pretty good job of distributing the sources throughout the story. The only thing I would have done differently to the story is I would have included a statement from Haynesworth earlier.

All of the sources are people.

The reporter does not really set up the attributions, he kind of just puts them in. For example, the Cuccinelli attribution is only stating his position as attorney general for the commonwealth and that he supports Haynesworth's effort to get exonerated.

The most interesting attribution of the story is the three-judge panel. The reporter simplified down the decision of the panel into three words, "not so fast." This was stated in the context of whether or not Haynesworth should be exonerated. I thought it was interesting that he didn't include any statements made during this decision, but instead paraphrased.